A left-facing sectional has its chaise, the long seat you stretch your legs out on, on your left when you stand in front of the sofa and look at it. A right-facing sectional has the chaise on your right. To choose between them, stand across the room where the TV will be, face the spot where the sofa will go, and point to the end that suits the chaise.
That test reads Ashley, Island Living and Decor-Rest labels correctly, because all three name a piece's side as you face it. La-Z-Boy names its pieces as you sit in them, so a La-Z-Boy right-arm sitting chaise matches what Ashley calls a left-arm facing chaise. At Merit Home Furniture on Vancouver Island, our site lists 55 sectionals from those four makers, so both kinds of label sit in one collection.
Left-facing vs right-facing sectional: how do they differ?
The difference between a left-facing and a right-facing sectional, its orientation, is the end the chaise sits on, seen from the front. The pieces and their sizes are the same, only mirrored. On a single piece, left-facing means the arm is on your left as you face it, and the open end that joins the next piece is on your right.
Does right-facing mean my right while sitting?
Right-facing doesn't mean your right while sitting, on an Ashley, Island Living or Decor-Rest label. Sit down and the sides swap, so a chaise on your left from the front is on your right from the seat. La-Z-Boy is the exception: its piece names say sitting, and they're read from the seat.
To tell whether a sofa you already own is left- or right-handed, stand in front of it, facing the seat cushions. The end with the chaise or the single arm names it. A photo works the same way once you find the front of the sofa. A room photo taken from behind the sofa reverses it, so look for the seat cushions before deciding.
LAF, RAF, LHF and left-arm sitting: how each maker labels a sectional
Sectional labels come in two families. Facing labels are read standing in front of the piece, and sitting labels are read from the seat. LAF and RAF mean left-arm facing and right-arm facing, and LHF and RHF mean left-hand and right-hand facing. Here are the four makers with the most listings in the Merit sectionals collection, each in its own words.
| Maker | Label and source |
|---|---|
| Ashley (17) | Read from the front: left-arm facing and right-arm facing. "Left-arm" and "right-arm" describe the position of the arm when you face the piece, on Ashley's own Altari page and in the set descriptions on our pages |
| Island Living (11) | Read from the front: LAF and RAF. Island Living lists the Alberni as "available in LAF and RAF (as shown)". In its photo of the RAF Alberni, the chaise and its arm are on the right as you face it |
| Decor-Rest (15) | Read from the front: LHF and RHF. The 2006 style sheet labels its RHF sofa "bras droit", right arm, and draws that arm on the right as seen from the front |
| La-Z-Boy (12) | Read from the seat: Left-Arm Sitting and Right-Arm Sitting. "Includes left arm (as you are seated in the recliner)", on its Trouper left-arm sitting recliner |
Why does a left-chaise order include a right-arm sofa?
A left-chaise order includes a right-arm sofa because every end piece has its arm on the outside, and the open ends meet in the middle. Ashley's Ambee set shows the left-chaise order, a "left-arm facing corner chaise" and a "right-arm facing sofa", with an armless loveseat between them. The chaise's arm is at the far left and the sofa's at the far right. Island Living's RAF Alberni is the mirror image: the chaise and its arm at the far right, the sofa's arm at the far left.
So an order sheet showing both hands is normal. An order with the same hand on both end pieces would put an arm in the middle of the sofa, and it's worth a second look. Decor-Rest's pieces carry the same logic in LHF and RHF, and what each piece of a sectional is called is set out in its own guide.
Reading a La-Z-Boy sectional listing before ordering it online
A La-Z-Boy listing in Merit's sectionals collection is almost always one piece of the sectional, named from the seat. Eleven of the 12 La-Z-Boy listings there describe a single piece. The Alani page talks about the whole sectional without naming one piece. The Paxton page describes "The Paxton Right Arm Sitting Chaise", so that listing is the chaise alone. A right-arm sitting chaise sits at the left end of the sectional as you face it.
A photo of a single piece can show the other hand from the one in its name, so the words on the page are what to go by. La-Z-Boy's own photo of its Trouper left-arm sitting recliner shows the arm on the right of the picture, which is where a left-arm sitting piece's arm appears from the front. Our Pinnacle page names its piece "Left Arm Sitting" in the text, and its photo is a room shot of several seats, so the words settle it.
The rest of a La-Z-Boy sectional comes from the pieces listed for the style. For the Paxton those are a 90 degree corner, an armless chair, and left-arm and right-arm sitting chairs and chaises. A Paxton sofa with its chaise at the left end would be the right-arm sitting chaise, an armless chair or two, and a left-arm sitting chair at the far right. The Paxton page lists one price, $849; covers are chosen by phone or in the store. The way La-Z-Boy pieces are priced at Merit has its own guide.
Before paying online for any La-Z-Boy piece, a call to the nearest store lets us check the hand against your room and price the whole layout.
Which side should the chaise go on? The door, the windows, the TV and the walkway
The chaise goes best on the end that leaves the door and the main walkway clear, and that lets the person stretched out on it see the TV without twisting. A chaise also reaches much further into the room than the seats beside it. On the Decor-Rest 2006, the sofa with chaise is 62 inches deep against 40 for the plain sofa, so the chaise end takes 22 more inches of floor. The Island Living Alberni has a chaise 69 inches deep, beside a sofa 37 inches deep.
- Draw the room. Sketch the walls roughly to scale and mark each door with the way it swings, plus the windows, heaters, vents and outlets.
- Mark the route through. Draw the path people take from the door to the kitchen or the hall. The chaise belongs on the end away from that path.
- Keep a way out clear. The Canadian Forces Fire Marshal's home fire booklet on Canada.ca says every room needs two ways out. It names couches among the furniture that shouldn't block doors or windows.
- Check the view. Sit where the chaise would be, feet out, and look toward the TV spot or the wood stove. If your neck turns, try the other end.
- Try the chaise at each end. Mark the chaise's full depth on the floor at one end, then at the other, and walk the route past each.
- Name it both ways. Stand facing the tape and say which end the chaise is on. Then write down the maker's words for it: facing words for Ashley, Island Living and Decor-Rest, and sitting words for La-Z-Boy, where left and right swap.
Is one side better for a small room?
In a small room, the chaise's depth and the door it might crowd matter more than which side it's on. In a narrow room, a shorter chaise, or a sofa with an ottoman that can move, can help more than swapping ends. The two-thirds rule for sofas, a sofa about two-thirds the length of its wall, is about proportion and says nothing about the side. Measuring each wall and doorway comes before any of this, and it has a guide to itself.
Can the chaise switch sides? What our 61 sectional listings say
Three of the 61 listings in our sectionals collection say the chaise can move to the other end: the Ashley Cascilla and Venaldi sofa chaises and the Elite Nordel sofa with its loose chaise. The two Ashley pieces, like the Stonemeade and Greaves sofa chaises listed with our sofas, credit a reversible seat cushion and a movable ottoman. The word reversible appears on other sectional pages too, such as the Elyza's, but there it describes cushions that flip over. What the other sectional listings offer instead is a choice made before ordering.
- Ashley's single corner pieces name their hand in the title, as on the Abalone left-arm facing corner chaise carried at our Port Alberni store.
- Island Living's own pages list its in-stock Alberni and Clayoquot in both hands. Our listings don't say which hand Island Living has in stock, so that's worth asking before ordering one.
- Decor-Rest and La-Z-Boy make each hand as its own item with its own number, ordered in your cover, so the side is chosen piece by piece.
- The Ashley Abalone armless loveseat, a piece sold on its own, has no arm, so it has no left or right at all.
What happens if the wrong side of a sectional is ordered
When the hand you picked turns out wrong for the room, the order comes under the same deposit and exchange terms as any other. They depend on whether it's a special order. Rubeena and I run Merit's Duncan store on these terms.
| The order | What applies |
|---|---|
| A special order, made in your cover or layout | A 24% deposit goes down when you order it. |
| Exchanges and returns | Invoices say all sales are final, but we encourage exchanges for up to 30 days and handle returns case by case. |
| Getting the other hand of a special order | A new order for that piece. It's ready for pickup or delivery in 4 to 6 weeks for Ashley, and 8 to 10 for Decor-Rest or La-Z-Boy. Island Living takes 6 to 8 weeks, or 2 to 3 if Island Living has the piece in stock in Vancouver. |
The easiest time to catch a wrong side is before you sign, while the facing drawn on the invoice can still be redrawn. The deposit and exchange terms are also written out on our site.
A sectional ordered in the store gets drawn on the invoice the way it will face, with the measurements next to it. We also ask you to take the tape to the room once more at home, so the numbers on the invoice meet the real walls. If the drawing and the room don't agree, that's the moment to tell us.
When a sectional with a fixed side is the wrong buy
A sectional with a fixed side is the wrong buy for a room that may change. If you rent, move every few years or might put the TV on another wall, the next room may want the chaise at the other end. A sofa with a loose ottoman can be rearranged instead, and the Ashley Elyza pieces, which Ashley says "can float anywhere sides are finished", can stand apart in a new room.
A fixed chaise also struggles on a wall with a door near each end, since one end will crowd a door whichever side is chosen.
Where the left and right facing rules come from
- La-Z-Boy, Trouper Left-Arm Sitting Recliner product page, with its "as you are seated" arm note and photo, checked September 2026.
- Decor-Rest Furniture, 2006 Sectional style sheet (March 2021) and the 2006 sectional's list of items and sizes, checked September 2026.
- Ashley, Altari 2-Piece Sectional with Chaise, with its definition of left-arm and right-arm, and Ashley's set descriptions on our product pages, checked September 2026.
- Canadian Forces Fire Marshal, Home fire prevention booklet, on Canada.ca, checked September 2026.
- Merit Home Furniture's live product pages for the 61 listings in its sectionals collection, re-read October 16, 2026, and its deposit, exchange and delivery terms.
Checking which way a sectional faces with us before it's ordered
Bring a sketch of the room, with the doors, windows and TV marked, to the Merit showroom nearest you. On the North Island that's the Campbell River showroom at 1300 A Homewood Road. In the Cowichan Valley, ask for me at the Duncan showroom on Ingram Street. Nobody will rush you, and taking the sketch home to think it over is normal.
From the Duncan store, delivery is $150 across the Island with assembly included, and what happens when the sectional arrives is covered separately. For the size and shape decisions that come first, there's how to choose a sectional in the first place. Every sofa and sectional guide is gathered on one page for sofa and sectional questions.